Banking on destructive measures

Tuesday

Feb 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Top brass at the Bank of Stockton knew they had to take action after bullets came through the windows on three occasions last year from gunfire erupting at Fremont Plaza, a park across the street.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - Top brass at the Bank of Stockton knew they had to take action after bullets came through the windows on three occasions last year from gunfire erupting at Fremont Plaza, a park across the street.

First, they installed bulletproof glass and security cameras at the bank inside and out that capture license plate numbers of passing motorists.

Now, they have turned their sights onto the drug dealers who have set up shop on the park's northeast corner. With the bank's financial help, the city demolished all the benches and picnic tables to make it less inviting.

"When bullets start coming through the windows, it accelerated the excitement," said Thomas Shaffer, the Bank of Stockton's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "It's a real mess."

The city has agreed also to keep the park's bathrooms locked. They've trimmed back the trees to let the sunshine in, and brighter street lights are coming, among improvements they're making on a shoestring budget.

Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones said he doesn't normally recommend tearing the benches and tables out of city parks, but in this case, they had to make a clean slate of the historic park.

"It was occupied by the wrong folks," Jones said. "Those benches had to go."

The effort to take back the park started a year ago, when he met with bank officials and others neighbors, including a church and mortuary. They all were fed up with gambling, drinking and drug sales, activities that often come with guns.

The demolition project is designed to disrupt the daily patterns of criminal activity at the park, Jones said.

The bank with 250 employees and its neighboring park sit on the border of Stockton's downtown and a neighborhood with chronic crime problems to the north.

Some bank employees park on the opposite side of the park. Ideally, they would like it to be safe enough once again for their employees to eat lunch in the park.

Jones said that when they've driven off criminal activity, the city will redesign the park so that it creates a positive space.

The benches were demolished Friday. On Monday, a group of men stood at the park's troublesome northeast corner as if lost.

The bank still has scars of gunfire that increased in frequency about 18 months ago. Bullet holes are in plain sight.

There's a clean shot through the metal awning over the parking lot, and just inside the door a slug dented the side of a counter. One employee has a collection of a half-dozen slugs in a tray on his desk.

Emily Baime, general manager of the Downtown Stockton Alliance, said she wasn't too worried about making the park inconvenient for the drug dealers. The park remains open for anybody using it productively, she said.

"Drug deals lead to shootings, and that's a threat to bank employees," Baime said. "Frankly, I feel that's more important."